A blog by Campaspe Regional Library to talk about genealogy and family history, ask questions, highlight useful sites and share tips.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Genealogy Cruise post 1

So the 4th Unlock the Past genealogy cruise is underway. Currently internet connection aboard the ship is rather dodgy - I hope that will improve along the way, but I will post updates as I can. Having boarded the ship, found my cabin and settled myself in, I will not bore you with descriptions of the ship and it's amenities - you can look that up online for yourself. It is time for the genealogy to begin, starting with a talk by Chris Paton on British and Irish newspapers. While there is certainly more out there than I had realised, I will admit to a bit of patriotic satisfaction and say the United Kingdom is nowhere near as organised and simple as the Australian site Trove. Of course, the United Kingdom probably has a few more papers over the years to deal with....

While not all UK newspaper sites are free to use, I will echo the advice that you need to check your National Library and State Library to see if they have a subscription. Membership of both is free (as is membership of your local library - hint, hint), and you may be able to access these resources online for free with your membership too. Why pay if you don't have to??
Numerous other talks during the day have left me with about 30 pages of notes (most of which I can even read) and a severe case of information overload. I'm going to need our days in port to recover and time after the cruise to sort my notes and take it all in.
While there have been a few hiccups (does technology EVER completely work properly the first time??) overall the cruise is off to a great start and my biggest problem is trying to get to all the talks I want to hear. I have yet to learn how to be in two places at one time.